Chainsaw Man – 4 [Rescue]

Another week and another piece of Chainsaw action with this being the episode with the most anime original content to date. Public response looks to be brimming though as for myself I find that I am both impressed and a little disappointed. I don’t mean to be a downer though as I hear Japanese twitter fans are hounding staff over dumb things.(They even got Fujimoto to stop pretending to be his sister on twitter, those monsters!) It’s just that to be perfectly honest I was really looking forward to a moment that was to come just after credits, and not for the reasons you likely expect. I had a full write up prepared to put to paper today and now I have to save it till next week. I was also going to complain about this covering less chapters than I hoped, only to look at the manga to find we covered three chapters instead of the usual four so it wasn’t a massive departure. Not to mention this is another post where I just don’t know how much I have to talk about until I type it so let’s just see how this goes. This also marks the first time I had to dig out the Japanese title for the episode because someone at Crunchyroll forgot to put the episode title on the video. I really don’t want to dog on you guys but really with the subtitles, server troubles and this, you make it far too easy.
That Leech devil fight was certainly something considering how they extended it in the anime. In the manga the fight was barely a blink and gone before you registered it. The most striking thing I remember about it is the Leech claiming to be Bat’s lover but from how she spoke it sounded more like it was stalking him. Which would make sense with her being a leech and all so to have emotionally attached to someone against their will is practically on brand. But a standout would be Denji remarking about everyone looking down on his dream as it’s almost a full on criticism of the lofty ideals of shounen protagonists. Most have large overarching goals but Denji is a man of simple pleasures, I doubt he can even fathom a large goal given his upbringing. But the interesting aspect is that does an impressive goal mean better motivation? Denji’s goal may be silly but he fights harder for it than any protagonist that dreams of being Pirate King or Hokage. If you truly put maximum effort towards a small obtainable goal, isn’t that in some ways more impressive than doing the same for a large near unobtainable one? I would even consider it smart as determination can be a limited state. That was one thing this fight is trying to bring across and another is to highlight Denji’s major weakness in how he needs blood to go full chainsaw. It has been mentioned before but this is where we see that extended fights are really not Denji’s strong suit. If I had a criticism for the original content of this episode it would be that Denji is using a degree of strategy with that Battle of Hoth rope up. At this point he really should just be throwing himself at the enemy as that’s really all he knows as far as combat. Still I do really like the complete manic energy he gets as he gets more battered as it really does show that despite how well adjusted Denji is considering his upbringing, there’s still something not quite right in his head.

So we have a long extended leech devil fight and funny enough a fully anime original scene of Aki reporting to Makima and running through his morning routine. I admit to being frustrated at these scenes as I could tell they were dragging out time as it likely wanted to end on a particular moment. But the devil is in the details, albit metaphorically. The small bits showing Aki warming up to Denji, the quiet moments of thought and the establishment of the odd couple dynamic both he and Denji share. It says a lot with very little and I think moments like these truly help build an emotional connection that the manga could sometimes lose in its fast pace. With the end of Chainsaw Man’s first arc we may be seeing evidence of extended calm periods which truly could elevate later story points. The manga barely gives you a moment to breathe while the anime looks to be letting things stew. I would say it depends on how future episodes turn out to really see how beneficial this style could be. Here it also works to show just how much of a disruption Power is as just when Aki and Denji reached a level of peace and comfort with each other, she literally bashes in to annoy the two of them. Also like the small touches showing Aki’s affection for Makima with the blush on the phone and him choosing to check his look before committing to knocking on her door. I would even say this could hint at Makima having a bit of revenge as she clearly knew that Aki wasn’t being quite honest with her and decided “Well if you want to care of them, then they are yours.” I would like to bring up one thing here about Power and it’s something which makes me agree more with the choice to cut the Muscle devil. When you look at Power and Meowy they are like a copy of Denji and Pochita. A boy and his dog aside a girl and her cat. They are like a yin and yang, a reverse of each other down to gender and which is demonic. The muscle devil was to serve to show Denji’s empathy but I think him sticking up for Power even after the betrayal is a far greater example of it. You can say it was for boobs but by episode’s end even Denji seemed to forget about the deal until Power brought it up. I can also say, Denji is horny but he’s not a pervert. He had plenty of opportunities to touch Power but he never did. He always gunned for consent and never forced his desires on her. A quality which surprisingly few anime characters possess.

Animation? Look I don’t see how anyone could have complaints at this point. It feels outright disingenuous to try and decry anything here as subpar. The level of detail with Aki just making a cup of coffee was so unnecessary to be outright flaunting. You can’t even yell about bad CGI anymore, I just didn’t see any. There has been a small amount of criticism regarding the direction of the series as it is going for something more down to earth than the manga’s outright zany nature at times. It can result in the humor being less pronounced as I do recall the scene with Power revealing her disgusting habits which was a mirror of Denji making it far funnier. The humor isn’t gone but it is more subdued. I have commented before on Fujimoto’s skill with expression and unfortunately that is gone with adaptation decay. However I do feel what we are getting is something which manga has a hard time conveying. It’s different and different isn’t bad. As a long time watcher of many adapted works I can promise you that adapting a manga frame by frame is really the wrong way of doing things. A manga can get away with highly detailed expressions because it needs to get across something with a single image. An anime has the capability to elaborate and let things simmer. Making the smallest movement have meaning when in a manga that would be a full page of detailed panels just to show that movement. Each medium should work to its strengths rather than be a pale imitation of the other.

Then there’s the dub release for the week. I would say again that we have a good dub here provided you can get used to characters sounding older than their Japanese counterparts and some liberal dialogue. Aki especially with his voice sounds a great deal older, his age isn’t specified but I would say his Japanese actor sounds about twenty when his English actors sound mid to late twenties. It does highlight his more mature nature compared to Denji but I would say it’s the hardest to adjust to if you are used to his Japanese voice. Powers English voice sounds deeper but captures a lot of her chaotic energy. I would say it’s less cute and more crazy. She pulled off the crazy laugh at the end of the episode to say the least. As for Denji, I would say his actor is selling it. He’s pulling off goofy and serious very well. I would put him as the strongest actor in the cast and really showing a good range of emotion. As for Makima, it’s very strange to have the same lines and actions yet with different interpretations. Japanese Makima sounds a lot closer to Denji’s age and a lot softer despite her character being confirmed to be mid twenties. As such I would consider her English voice to likely be a more accurate representation with its motherly yet dominating tone. With Denji I could hold favor with his english voice, while with Aki I would be more on the side of Japanese but with Makima it’s like comparing apples and oranges. The takes are so different that to compare seems fruitless. As it isn’t a matter of which is more representative of the character but rather how you would like your Makima? Soft and aloof or Motherly and stern? I feel the effects of jumping between dub and sub as really it’s better to stick to one. Still I would like to see just how these two will continue to differ, though I may refrain from commenting on the dub as the workload on Tuesdays is already heavy enough.